Within the field of computing, many scenarios involve the presentation of an alert on a device, such as a ringtone or vibration presented to a user by a mobile phone upon receiving an incoming call or text message. In such scenarios, the noise of the environment may affect the user's ability to hear the alert, which may cause the user to miss a time-sensitive alert, such as a request for a realtime communication session (e.g., an incoming phone call or video chat request). The user may utilize a variety of techniques to cope with the noise of the environment, such as increasing the volume of the device to make the alert noticeable over the noise of the environment. If the noise in the environment is of a particular type, the user may switch the alert of the device from a first sensory modality that matches the noise to an alternative sensory modality that does not match the noise (e.g., in an environment with a loud volume of sound, the user may switch from a sound-based alert to a vibration-based alert). If the user misses the alert, the device may log the missed alert and present a message that the user may notice during or after the time of the alert.